About the Center

The Lori E. Talsky Center for Human Rights of Women and Children was founded in 2012 due to the funding and inspiration of Lori E. Talsky, ’96, and her husband, Alan S. Zekelman.

The Talsky Center’s mission is to educate MSU College of Law students, as well as the broader community, about international human rights law and international humanitarian law. The Center aims to promote an understanding of the important civilizing role that these bodies of law so often plays in a world fraught with transgressions against human dignity and well-being. The Center promotes human rights for all people, with a focus on women and children—generally the most vulnerable and, therefore, most easily victimized members of society.

The Talsky Center offers a diverse program of activities to serve MSU Law students and contribute to strengthening advocacy for human rights. For example, the Center funds externships round the globe for MSU Law students at courts and institutions devoted to upholding these rights.

Each academic year, the Talsky Center runs a Lecture Series featuring a variety of speakers at the Law College to share their expertise in international human rights or humanitarian law, or their knowledge of one of the ongoing crises engendered by violations of such law. The Center also conducts an annual symposium on a wide range of important human rights law issues.

A third Talsky Center offering consists of extracurricular legal research and writing projects on human rights and humanitarian law problems. The Center solicits MSU Law students to volunteer on the projects each of which deals with and impacts upon real-world ongoing situations.